what happened to the good old "not recommend"?
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picakhuNov 17 '11 at 16:20

1

why not? I mean if "advice against" is acceptable, so should "not recommend".
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picakhuNov 17 '11 at 16:29

2

I vote for a new word: decommend. :-)
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Chris DwyerNov 17 '11 at 16:51

2

Technically speaking I think the antonym of recommend is "no opinion on that". In common usage a recommendation can be positive or negative "The committee recommends not purchasing a chocolate teapot."
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James AndersonNov 18 '11 at 8:59

I think "dissuade" is a pretty good choice.
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LarsTechNov 17 '11 at 16:34

8

Depending on the exact context, I think that discourage and dissuade could fit the bill.
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BjornNov 17 '11 at 18:16

3

@Lars and Bjorn: Depending on context, yes, but in a sentence: "I recommend the blue sweater" you could not directly substitute: "I discourage the blue sweater" or "I dissuade the blue sweater". That is why I believe it is not a true antonym, though it can be used to convey a similar idea.
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LynnNov 17 '11 at 20:54

Nice find! "Discommend" is an excellent word - it sounds as funny as "unpossible", but it's legitimate. And it's clearer to say "I discommend X" than "I don't recommend X", because the latter could mean I'm neutral on the matter. I say let's bring it back. :)
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Nathan LongNov 17 '11 at 16:31

2

@NathanLong good point re: the neutrality of "I don't recommend"… I agree, we should rescue this word from obscurity! Letting this word fade into obscurity is discommendable!
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ghoppeNov 17 '11 at 16:36

1

By the way, I found the Google Ngram of discommend, and linked sample uses fascinating! It appears to have dropped out of use in the last half of the 1800s.
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ghoppeNov 17 '11 at 23:20

2

I really want to use this word for the sole purpose of being able to prove certain people wrong when they try to tell me it's not a word :)
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Brandon MooreNov 18 '11 at 2:14

1

@Brandon Moore: On that basis, you could also use discountenance, disesteem, and disfavor. But don't blame me if you get accused of being a pretentious prat.
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FumbleFingersNov 18 '11 at 14:19

"deprecate" does also have the additional meaning of "this isn't guaranteed to work in the future, stop using it now and get used to the correct alternative". So it's more a subset of the answer... Still, +1 because I see it so often (x_x)
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IzkataNov 17 '11 at 21:03

2

@Izkata: I think it's fair to say that "additional meaning" is specifically the meaning applicable in the computer sense. But the broader meaning was always there long before the word was co-opted by geekspeak, and just because it's fallen into obscurity because of confusion with "depreciate" is no reason why it can't come back into more general use. After all, discommend is even rarer and more archaic, and that's currently the top-rated answer.
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FumbleFingersNov 17 '11 at 23:16

1

@FumbleFingers I would argue that the new meaning of "deprecate" would make it simply confusing if used outside of the context of the new meaning, while "discommend" doesn't have that problem, because it's fallen out of use instead of having evolved with the language.
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IzkataNov 18 '11 at 0:21

As @breen and others have said, the standard phrasing for the opposite of I recommend is probably I advise against.

But if you're not really interested in specifying who advises against something, you might consider deprecate - to express earnest disapproval of. Saying something is deprecated is standard terminology in the context of software components/methods, but there's no reason why it couldn't be used more widely.

Usage for deprecated was declining before its recent revival in computing, probably because of overlap with depreciate. But for the time being I'd stick with the past particple, and avoid, for example, "I deprecate that course of action".

I think "dissuade" is normally transitive. You should mention who you are dissuading. "I dissuade you from using this item." Even then, it sound presumptuous that you would be successful. "I would dissuade people from using this item." or "I'd try to dissuade you from using this item."
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OddthinkingNov 18 '11 at 11:16

It would help if you could examples of each being in use.
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HugoNov 18 '11 at 8:52

ok, for example the first one disapprove/discourage "I recomend the use of drugs" it would be "I disapprove/discourage the use of drugs" don't have in mind a phrase for the last one English isn't my language, I speak portuguese
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DaniloNov 18 '11 at 14:57